Pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through examination of cells, clusters of cells, tissues, organs, and body fluids. In a typical setting a pathologist may diagnose and characterize a given disease by examining a sample (e.g., tissue sample) removed from a patient. Tissue samples are often prepared by slicing a given tissue sample into thin slices. These thin slices are then mounted onto glass slides, which may be treated with a reagent or stain in order to improve visible contrast.
In a typical setting, the pathologist then analyzes the tissue sample using a microscope system. In this setting, the pathologist may manually scan the tissue sample at various locations and various magnifications in order to identify abnormal cells or cell clusters. Manual pathology methods are tedious and in many cases a pathologist may need to examine hundreds of imagery fields before identifying tissue elements (e.g., cells or cell clusters) of interest. Due to this large volume of imagery fields, a pathologist is susceptible to eye strain and general fatigue. As fatigue and eye strain increase, the likelihood for errors increases. It is therefore advantageous to develop automated systems for guiding pathologist analysis and classification.